Mining Country

Burrup Rock Art

A steep drop in Aboriginal sites being added to WA's heritage register is leading to "a vast sea of ignorance" that will thwart heritage protection, according to Carmen Lawrence, the chair of the Australian Heritage Council.
After changing the heritage laws to favour mining companies, Aboriginal Affairs Minister said some places "presented as worthy of protection" were "of little or no interest" to Aborigines and that only "the industry of heritage professionals" appeared to value those sites. [node:read-more:link]

The NSW Labor Government sold the iconic The Drip gorge for $2084 in a 2010 lease conversion sale that cost a Chinese coal company less than $3 a hectare. The unpublicised $2084 conversion of more than 700 hectares of Crown land to freehold title in 2010, despite the community raising strong concerns about the possibility of such a conversion at least two years earlier, has shocked and angered groups fighting to protect the area. "They sold it for the price of a clapped-out second-hand car" said Environmentalist Bev Smiles [node:read-more:link]

Yawuru man Micklo Corpus said that Buru Energy had not listened to the Yawuru people and this was a serious breach of their rights, given that 94% of the Yawuru were against the process.
Making matters even worse, dingos, reptiles, birds and various small marsupials have been found trapped in their tailings dams which contain a toxic mixture of chemicals from the fracking process. These dams often include heavy metal traces and hydrocarbons drawn up from deep underground as a part of fluid recovery. [node:read-more:link]

In the past two years about 1500 sites have changed from being "registered" to "stored data", meaning they no longer warrant heritage protection. stated Academic, Professor Joe Dortch.

Most of those sites are in mining leaseholds belonging to Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest.Anthropologists are aghast at the interpretation, saying it's further evidence the Barnett government is taking Aboriginal heritage back 40 years. [node:read-more:link]

This new policy is a treacherous act, the government closed down CDEP programs against the wishes of the people. Instead of reinstating these, they are going to force people into full-time 'Work for the Dole' where there is no work. This appears to be part of the major conspiracy of forcing First Nations people off their homelands ... again. Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the Coalition government was “once again ignoring the underlying factors that are contributing to unemployment”. [node:read-more:link]

Plans by Hanson Construction Materials to expand its quarrying operations could affect Aboriginal heritage sites, including a camp where iconic warrior Yagan is said to have had his last meal. Hanson, a subsidiary of German-based Heidelberg Cement, submitted an application to impact Aboriginal sites so it can expand its Red Hill Quarry, which could destroy areas sacred to Nyungar people.
- 'Can't you feel the sacredness of that stone. You don't need to touch it; just being near it is enough.' [node:read-more:link]

The remaining framework and security of Aboriginal land, protected by the Land Rights Act, is in danger of being dropped into a big hole by Governments, bureaucracies and people who have no real understanding or sympathy for traditional communal land ownership.

'99-year town leases turn traditional ownership upside down', writes Ian Viner AO QC in a paper distributed the Northern Land Council on the history of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act and where we are at today. [node:read-more:link]

SMH reported that claims of price fixing for consulting work carried out on Aboriginal heritage surveys, as well as destruction of artefacts and sites to enable mining development have come to the attention of the competition watchdog.

With concerns raised in July, the ACCC has investigated claims which involved Rio Tinto Coal, Ashton Coal and NuCoal Resources operations in the Hunter Valley. [node:read-more:link]